Comrades in Miami.

John Walker is a professor of Spanish at Queen’s University.

In Comrades in Miami Toronto-based Cuban novelist José Latour continues the adventures of Havana schoolteacher Elliot Steill from his previous novel Outcast, in which Steill left the island for the fleshpots of Miami. With the same colour, and skill and pace that characterized the earlier novel, Latour describes U.S.–Cuban relations in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet empire and the withdrawal of Russian support from Cuba. Latour captures this period and atmosphere with a political savvy that elevates this crime thriller to the level of the “cold war” novel, reminiscent and worthy of the best of John Le Carre and others.

Now ensconced in Miami with the other gusanos (worms), and working for a shady international trading company, Steill, on a trip home to Cuba, is persuaded by U.S. agents (FBI, CIA, Treasury) to report any contacts, connections, or deals with strangers on the island. Meanwhile, back in Cuba, the protagonists are Colonel Victoria Valiente, a psychologist with Cuban Intelligence, and her husband, Major Manuel Pardo, a computer expert who also works as front for Cuban counter-intelligence, in the murky world of money laundering. Latour skilfully interweaves the two worlds, the two governments, and the two cities (Havana and Miami) as Victoria and Manuel infiltrate the sleazy, shadowy underworld of Miami business and Cuban politics, thus linking the two sets of protagonists. As in previous novels, Latour has a dark vision not only of politics, but of life itself. His characters have no illusions about the life they have chosen nor the human condition, as Victoria and Manuel reveal—so much for the glorious ideals of the Revolution. Comrades in Miami is particularly critical of the Cuban communist system that Latour has just abandoned. Both sets of characters spend much time philosophizing about the Revolution that went wrong, the paradise lost, the corruption and hypocrisy at all levels of government, which includes open criticism of Fidel, Raul, and other top government officials, whom Latour knew personally as a functionary for decades before he left Cuba. Occasionally there is nostalgia for the old days, for better times, the innocence of the revolution, memories of the country hometowns, and past values.

Comrades in Miami is a typical Latour spy novel, fast-paced, dark in its tone, much more sexually explicit in its love scenes, and openly critical of both sets of values, communist and capitalist, Cuban and American. One can say that it raises the roman noir to a higher level, with its overt political and metaphysical concerns. Another good read.